How to Conduct a Virtual Meeting Smoothly

Virtual meetings are exactly the same as regular meetings, but online. Virtual meetings have become very popular over the last decade as technology has advanced, and especially with the increasing amount of people now choosing to work from home or start up their own businesses.

To host a virtual meeting successfully and ensure your group is communicating effectively in a virtual meeting, you need to remember and implement a few things into your conference. Once you have adopted one professional platform such as ezTalks, follow these steps to make sure your virtual meeting runs smoothly and brings the desired outcome.

1. Be prepared

Whatever the reason for your business call, make sure you have all of the necessary things ready to present to your colleagues or potential clients right by you, and in order of presentation so that you're not fumbling around when the time comes. Write a few prompt cards to glance at in case you get stuck at any point in the conversation. Get the spreadsheets ready. Think about how you're going to keep everyone engaged.

2. Dress how you want to be seen

All companies are different and all meetings are too. If you would like to be seen as a successful business man/woman, then dress in the correct attire; suit and tie for men and dress suit/dresses for women. If you present yourself on camera in a baggy top with your hair all over the place, you're not going to come across as professional and if the call is to land some sort of deal, then you probably wouldn't land it dressed badly.

3. Keep your background free of clutter

Try and position yourself somewhere that there isn't loads of belongings in the background or something that will distract whoever you are talking to. You want the focus to be on you. If possible, try and position the camera in your office, or a space that looks like an office. Also, be sure to turn off any TV's or radios in the background, and put the dog/cat outside for the time being.

4. Practice

Go through what you'd like to talk about in the mirror the night before, take in how you sit, are you slumped over? Body language plays a massive part in how people take you as a person and as a potential colleague. Remember to also take note of how you're talking. You will need to speak clearly and confidently.

5. Smile

Not only is it much nicer to see someone with a smile on their face over someone that looks like they don't even want to be there, a smile will show that you're an open person and easy to work with. It will also show that you enjoy what you do, meaning you'll do the best of your abilities when working with your clients.

6. Ask questions

Keep your audience involved, get them to share their ideas and work together as a group to create your desired content.

7. Answer questions

This is something that you should also think about before the meeting, what your answer will be for certain questions, so when they do come to you, you're already prepared to answer. Also answering people's questions shows that you're knowledgeable in your field of work and that will build up trust with potential clients.

8. Create an outline and a plan of action

At the start of your virtual meeting, address what the outline of your meeting is for, and explain why. Then at the end, you can all refer back to that and create a plan of action.

If you follow these steps then you should be able to achieve what you set out to do by hosting the virtual meeting. The more virtual meetings you host and attend, the easier it will be to host one, it will become second nature and you will find it's not something to worry about.

Remember, if you're prepared then the whole meeting will run much more smoothly. Also, be confident in what you do!